Getting out of tricky situations isn't easy. But along the way, I get to hang out with princesses (they never wear their crowns), camel jockeys (literally!) and famous (well at least quasi-famous) people...all for the love of media.

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Friday, February 26, 2016

OSCAR WEEK 2016: Bathrooms and Chickens

"Oh yes barkeep, one vodka tonic, dirty with three olives and chase it with an Oscar..."

About a year ago, I spent an afternoon with an Oscar winner who took out their shiny new 8.5 pound, 24 carat statuette everywhere we went.

Talk about attention...Uncle Oscar was best attention grabber this side of a Bugatti in South Beach.

Thinking back, I wondered where I would put my Oscar if I ever earned one. Would I take it on a tour, ala the Stanley Cup. Would I put it in safe deposit box? Build an entire room around it and protect it with security laser beams?

I'm still thinking on this one.

But what about the stars who win the magical golden trophy? Where do they have theirs?

Let's take a trip around the trophy room:

REFRIGERATORS, PIANOS, and SOCK DRAWERS...

Timothy Hutton
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Ordinary People

After taking home the trophy, it was rumored that Hutton threw a party and his sister placed the Oscar in the fridge next to the beer so party guests wouldn't miss it. Supposedly, its still there.

Tom Hanks
Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role, Philadelphia and Forrest Gump

Hanks has his on the family trophy shelf "next to the soccer trophies,...I think the World's Greatest Mom trophy from Mother's Day is up there as well."

Anna Paquin
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, The Piano

Paquin, only 11 when she took home the big prize, kept it hidden in her "sock drawer".

Jennifer Lawrence
Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role, Silver Linings Playbook

The perpetual queen of the tripping incident (and my proposed future ex-wife) gave hers to her parents. It now resides on the top of their piano in Kentucky.

...BATHROOMS...

Kate Winslet
Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role, The Reader

Winslet is on record that she keeps her Best Actress Oscar on "the back of the loo...Everybody wants to hold it and go 'Oh, my gosh', and, 'How heavy is it?' So I figured if I put it in the loo, then people can avoid the whole, 'Where's your Oscar?' thing."

Jodie Foster, The Accused and Silence of the Lambs
Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role

Before moving her princess treasures to a trophy case in her study, Foster housed them in her bathroom, noting: "They looked good with the faucets."

Emma Thompson
Performance by an Actress in a Lead Role, Howard's End
Adapted Screenplay, Sense and Sensibility

Thompson keeps both of her Oscars in her bathroom, because: "They look too outré anywhere else. They're great big, gold, shiny things." (Yeah, I had to look up outré too.)

She’s not alone – Susan Sarandon (Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role, Dead Man Walking), Lionel Richie (Music, Original Song, "Say You, Say Me" from White Nights) and Sean Connery (Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, The Untouchables) all to keep Uncle Oscar alongside their baths and bidets.

...with the CHICKENS...

Russell Crowe, Gladiator
Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role

Hoping his hens lay better eggs, Crowe keeps his in a chicken coop on his ranch in Australia

MEANWHILE...

...setups for the 88th Academy Awards continue:

88th Oscars Step and Repeat Wall, Part 1...The Academy's best wall ever. This is the wall where the stars and nominees stop and pose for pictures for the throng of "photojournalists" and reporters